Mumbai: A member of Maharashtra’s Covid-19 Task Force, Dr. Shashank Joshi on Sunday’s ‘Mann ki Baat’ radio show of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said that there is nothing to panic about the second wave of the pandemic despite it being more threatful because “the recovery rate in this phase is also high”.

“The second wave came very fast. It is spreading faster. But the recovery rate is also faster. In this phase, young people and children are also being infected. Symptoms are more or less similar. About 80 to 90 per cent of people do not have any symptom. There is no need to worry about mutations. The way we change our clothes, viruses too change the colour and get mutated.”

On vaccination, he said that people with comorbidity under 45 should be made eligible for vaccinations. Earlier, Dr Joshi said that people have to become “more responsive” because “unless and until we get citizens’ cooperation for Covid-19 appropriate behaviour, mandatory masking policy, zero tolerance for violators, we cannot say that the worst is over.” “So we have to maintain some tightness in adherence to Covid-19 appropriate behaviour and protocols,” he said.